SCMA Tour of KCBS / KCAL News

On Saturday December 7, 2013, members of the SCMA were invited to visit the the studios of KCBS/KCAL at the CBS Television Center in Studio City to tour the newsroom and watch them put on a newscast.

KCBS/KCAL News Assignment Manager Mark Liu was our “tour guide” and did a fantastic job of showing us what it takes to put on multiple daily news shows.

We were shown around the newsroom where the reporters, writers, and producers put the stories together, the Assignment Desk that coordinates the operation of reporters and photographers in the field, the Technical Operations Center (TOC) where all the video feeds come into the newsroom, the live trucks that send video back to the station via mountaintop microwave relay sites, the Control Room where they switch the various cameras and video sources, and the studio where the news anchors sit behind the desk and the weather reporter stands in front of a green screen.

One highlight (for our group!) was learning about the scanners they have in the newsroom and the remote scanners they have at various sites that they control and listen to over the Internet.

Thanks to Mark Liu who did an outstanding job, answering our never-ending questions, and letting us wander around and see just how much effort goes into getting the news out each day.

A big thanks also to Wayne Smith, N6LHV, LA-149, who set up the tour for us. This is definitely one we will have to do again!

You can look at the photos by either clicking on the thumbnails below or visit our photo set on Flickr.com for larger sized photos.